There are some successful and some unsuccessful bandsters here. I think, like with anything else, it all comes down to your level of committment and yes your willpower. Even with WLS you can fail.

Have you explored all your options? The first thing you want to do is to determine your eating habits, your addictions (mine was sugar!) and your pattern of failure.

I did not have a band. I knew that for me it would not be successful in breaking my sugar addiction. Nor would the sleeve, so I went with the RNY. I knew myself well enough to realize that if my tool allowed me to eat sugar without penalty then I eventually would.

If your issue is quantity, meaning you more or less eat the right types of foods - just too much of it - then you will very probably be more successful than average with the band or the sleeve. I knew that how much I ate wasn't the issue, but I would eat candy and soda before I would eat real food.

I do know from observations that you have to change your thinking and your habits just like you would without WLS. You need to develop good habits. You need to eat right. You need to exercise. This is true with any WLS, but seemingly more so with the band. Because all it does is restrict how much you can eat, now what you eat. Those I know that have adopted these habits as life have had greater success than those I know who have relied on the tool to do the work for them. It doesn't, at least not for very long.

Hopefully someone with band experience will come in and post because they can really help you regarding the lap band, a lot more than I can.

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Heather

Since 2008 my team has raised over $48,000 for The DFW Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk.

I didn't go with the band for the very same reasons Heather mentioned. I believe you can be successful with any method if you can do what you need to do. A have a friend who has the band, but hasn't managed to lose much with it. I believe the fills and removal of those fills take a while until you reach the right restriction... The other problem (for me) was the ability to continue to eat almost anything without pretty serious consequences.

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The big question is: How badly do you want this!?!"If it was easy everybody would be doing it." --Me!“All that we are is the result of what we have thought...What we think we become.” BuddhaTHE ONLY THING STOPPING ME IS MYSELF.The "easy way out" is the toughest thing I've ever done.

I would not recommend Lap Band Surgery. I have had one for 3 years. No weight loss. I have been filled and unfilled at every level. You can still eat what you want. If you want it bad enough you will eat it even if it hurts going down. So this was not a fix for me. Now things hurt going down and I am stuck with this band. Not everything. Just somethings. I wish I never had gotten the surgery.

I would not recommend Lap Band Surgery. I have had one for 3 years. No weight loss. I have been filled and unfilled at every level. You can still eat what you want. If you want it bad enough you will eat it even if it hurts going down. So this was not a fix for me. Now things hurt going down and I am stuck with this band. Not everything. Just somethings. I wish I never had gotten the surgery.

I am one of those that has the lap band and I love it.Haven't had any complications and the weight loss is steady.
I make healthy food choices and I look at it as a tool not a quick fix.My problem was how much I ate and now my portions are small and I have to really take my time at a meal or I'm very uncomfortable for hours.I still stick to a lower carb way of eating but it doesn't feel like a diet now ,just a way of life.

I too had LB surg in '04. It took 26 months to lose my 80 lbs (which exactly made up the "50-60% of excess weight" the literature said one could expect, on average. It wasn't easy. To lose anything I had to eat low carb 90% of the time. I don't regret my decision. I paid $19k out of pocket becasue I felt such a hopelessness that I'd ever be healthy. I still have a long way to goal (went from 290 to 210 where I remain nowadays) It's still & probably always will be a struggle but even if I never lose another ounce, I feel so much better inside & out. (by choice I've been "unfilled" with no restriction for the past four years.) Give it plenty of thought as others have mentioned.